1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cellular telephones able to operate using multiple languages, and more particularly, to a cellular telephone having the ability to translate a character string displayed on the display of the cellular telephone between a first and a second language.
2. Description of Related Art
As many people travel around the world and visit different countries, they find that their personal cellular phones will not operate when they visit a foreign country utilizing a different transmission scheme than their phone is programmed to function under. Service providers in other country, such as Japan, provide individuals with the option, upon disembarking from their plane or boat, to rent cellular service throughout their stay.
The convenience of cellular service when traveling, whether for business or pleasure, is welcomed by the traveler. However, many problems prevent the traveler from fully utilizing the operation of their phone. For example, while the numbers on the telephone keypad are Arabic, the function keys, in say Japan, are a combination of katakana and kanji characters. Also, the informational messages presented on the display of the cellular telephone are displayed in the native Japanese character sets. Furthermore, the menu sets associated with each phone are also displayed in Japanese character strings. This makes it virtually impossible for a non-Japanese speaking user to program the phone to perform tasks such as fax service, alarm, memory recall, etc.
Presently existing solutions to this problem involve a menu driven means for altering the language shown on the cellular display. However, if a user is unable to read the initial language that cellular telephone is programmed to display, the menu driven option for altering the displayed language will be virtually useless, since the user is unable to read the presented menus. Thus, a cellular telephone providing the ability to quickly translate between a first and second language would greatly benefit travelers utilizing cellular telephone services within a foreign country.